Congressman Mark Kirk --- Thoughtful Independent Leadership ---

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Chicago Sun-Times
July 9, 2003

Kudos on cleanup effort

Editorials

Somewhere along the line Republicans got a bad rap on the environment. Blame support for tapping Arctic oil reserves and a tendency to side with industry over protection of natural areas. This is harmful, both for the party, and to the extent that it is true, for the environment. So we were relieved to see both broad bipartisan support and an "extremely interested" President Bush getting behind a much-needed, $4 billion plan to clean up Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. Sixteen members of Congress from both parties are co-sponsoring the Great Lakes Restoration Fund, with Illinois Democrat Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Republican Rep. Mark Kirk among them.

And rightly so. This is too important an issue to sacrifice to party politics. The Great Lakes are a vital resource for the nation --they hold 20 percent of the Earth's fresh surface water and supply some 25 million people with drinking water. Despite this, the lakes have been allowed to suffer a range of woes, from PCB contamination to invasion by non-native species. The fund, spent over five years, would restore the lakes on a wide front--cutting agricultural run-off, cleaning up toxic hot spots, saving wetlands, fighting invasive species and reducing mercury contamination.

This initiative will have direct benefit to Chicago and the entire Midwestern region, and we applaud Emanuel and Kirk for setting aside partisan differences to help bring it into being.